Posts Tagged ‘journalism’

OPCW Scandal.

Written By: - Date published: 11:14 am, January 3rd, 2020 - 40 comments

There was no chemical attack in Douma.

Grotesque.

Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, April 27th, 2018 - 92 comments

People from Douma have been to The Hague and spoken of their experiences on the night of a supposed chemical attack by Syrian forces.

Bridges and flouting the OIA

Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, June 17th, 2017 - 18 comments

Simon Bridges tried to block the release of a report on a Kiwirail proposal. The Ombudsman warns against flouting the Official Information Act. But it’s a well established pattern of behaviour with this government.

Help Scoop ‘open the election’

Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, April 13th, 2017 - 9 comments

It is the last day of the Scoop fundraising project, and still some way to go to reach the goal. Help out if you can.

Voices of Aleppo.

Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, December 31st, 2016 - 172 comments

Ordinary Syrian people on Aleppo.

What to do about poverty (and a suggestion to the media)

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, January 16th, 2016 - 43 comments

An excellent piece on poverty by Lizzie Marvelly in The Herald this morning poses a question to which we already know the answer. (Plus some bonus rambling on the media.)

Death throes of journalism at TV3

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, November 16th, 2015 - 56 comments

Spinoff has the story.

TV3’s woes and a media bouquet

Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, November 5th, 2015 - 21 comments

Excellent piece on TV3’s woes at Spinoff this morning. It’s a grim picture for news over all, and we are much the poorer for it. (Bonus bouquet to Kirsty Johnston at The Herald for her current series on education.)

Dirty Politics was in the public interest

Written By: - Date published: 12:11 pm, October 30th, 2015 - 46 comments

Today’s anonymous editorial in The Herald makes for interesting reading, with the right conclusion in the end – Hager’s Dirty Politics served a genuine public interest, and should be legally protected as such.

The news is broken – pledge for Scoop

Written By: - Date published: 3:34 pm, October 11th, 2015 - 27 comments

Scoop has a Pledge Me page: Establishing The Scoop Foundation for Public Interest Journalism. We need Scoop. Please give them a hand…

Bashar al-Assad and other Bastards.

Written By: - Date published: 1:39 pm, October 3rd, 2015 - 130 comments

What proper journalistic coverage of Syria looks like.

Stewart’s brilliant account of the significance of Campbell Live

Written By: - Date published: 7:24 am, May 30th, 2015 - 47 comments

Rachel Stewart’s piece should be required reading for anyone who cares about New Zealand.

NRT: TPPA would criminalise journalism

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, October 18th, 2014 - 15 comments

I/S at No Right Turn on how “the TPPA would criminalise investigative journalism”.

Jon Stephenson vs NZDF retrial

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, July 11th, 2014 - 9 comments

The NZ Defense Force have been defending themselves in a defamation case against some grossly inaccurate claims that they made about reporter Jon Stephenson back in 2011 (and that John Key recklessly and foolishly chimed in on). They have been forced to concede that their claims were inaccurate. But a hung jury about how defamatory the claims were is causing it to proceeding to second trial. It looks like legal maneuvering by the NZDF has failed. My view is that the NZDF are being completely stupid about owning up to their screwup.

Jared Savage still trying for more inches

Written By: - Date published: 1:23 pm, July 4th, 2014 - 12 comments

I realise that journalists have to show some column inches sometimes to justify their existence on the payroll. However the “Investigations editor” Jared Savage at the the NZ Herald appears to be overdoing that. The latest is Jared’s attempt to puff up three routine immigration letters in 2005. He really must be desperate for those extra inches. There doesn’t appear to be anything about it that holds much public interest apart from a simple desire to smear. Hardly journalism.

 

NZ Herald: Be journalists, check before ‘reporting’

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, June 27th, 2014 - 62 comments

There is a self-serving anonymously authored editorial in the NZ Herald this morning “Editorial: Cries of bias will not stop reporting”.  Well for a start the problem isn’t with the Herald reporting. The journalism on the story has been performed by amateur journalists and facilitated by incompetent editors who didn’t check the story. This probably including whoever wrote this pathetic editorial. It appears to have been an abrupt change from their usual competent style of journalism. Of course the question has to be asked about what caused this change?

Does a ‘news medium’ consist of spreading defamation, lies and rumours?

Written By: - Date published: 2:55 pm, June 22nd, 2014 - 45 comments

The Whaleoil blog is in court on Monday. There is a full day session in the High Court in Auckland looking at the appeal by Cameron Slater against Judge Blackie’s decision in the District Court that the blog is not a news medium. Therefore Slater was not a journalist, and was therefore not able to protect his sources who provided stolen material to allow him to apparently defame Matthew Blomfield. The decision will probably provide case law about the status of blogs in the law and the responsibilities of news mediums.

Voices and Power

Written By: - Date published: 1:41 pm, February 28th, 2014 - 15 comments

When did the left leave the left? Or, perhaps more accurately, why do we continue to regard liberals as being of the left?

Journalism (The Intercept)

Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, February 19th, 2014 - 38 comments

Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Jeremy Scahill have launched a new on-line investigative journalism site.

The Scoop Foundation Project

Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, April 11th, 2013 - 4 comments

scoop-foundation

Attack of the Knuckleheads

Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, April 6th, 2013 - 97 comments

I wonder how far the knucklehead rebellion will spread…

“Name” journalism & voter dis-engagement

Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, November 29th, 2012 - 76 comments

Criticism of “anonymous” bloggers is a symptom of change that threatens to make politics more democratic.  The rise of “name” journalism and infotainment have increased voter dis-engagement.  However, well-managed blogging (by any name) can contribute to democratic re-engagement.

Not in the public interest

Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, November 3rd, 2012 - 89 comments

Some prominent “journalists” are working to undermine Labour and a possible Labour-Green government: one that could turn against the neoliberal scam that such “journalists” feed off. The left should take heart – the time has come to support the “public interest”, as outlined by Nicky Hager.

The future of journalism

Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, July 9th, 2012 - 36 comments

Confirmation today that The Herald is adopting a format more in keeping with its content, and going tabloid. The media world is changing fast…

John Key’s emergency descent

Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, February 12th, 2012 - 15 comments

A great graphic from the Sunday Star Times as John Key starts dropping towards a hard landing in the personal popularity stakes. And in the great tradition of  journalists everywhere, the rest of the article is about how he is still preferred by rubber fetishists.

The end(s) of journalism

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, July 16th, 2010 - 7 comments

Is serious journalism dying? Was it in any good it the first place? What must be done to ensure its survival? These are some of the questions to be tackled at The University of Auckland’s forthcoming Winter Lecture series on “The end(s) of journalism”.

Vote! Kean for Columbia

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, July 13th, 2010 - 10 comments

By David Farrar, Keith Ng, Rob Salmond, and Tim Watkin. Many people are concerned about the quality of public affairs journalism in New Zealand. Being concerned is a good start, but how can you take the next step? How can you help make it better? Yes, you. Here is one way. Follow this link and […]

Nats to journos: say what we want or shut up

Written By: - Date published: 12:59 pm, May 28th, 2008 - 19 comments

Here’s Barry Soper on ZB on the ‘Kate-gate‘ Kiwisaver debacle: What I found interesting was the way it was handled. I was the only person this time yesterday at this particular breakfast and it was a question from the floor. Kate Wilkinson quite clearly said that employer contributions to KiwiSaver was not going to be compulsory.  Now, […]

Spinning the spin.

Written By: - Date published: 2:11 pm, January 20th, 2008 - 279 comments

Ruth Laugeson has an article in the Sunday Star Times about the increased numbers of communications staff employed by ministries. Entitled “Spinning govt yarn costs $47m”, the article is in many ways a lovely piece of spin in its own right. The basis of the article is that the number of spindoctors employed by the […]

Shadbolt campaign funded by Hollow Men

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 pm, January 18th, 2008 - 96 comments

Remember how I asked who was funding Tim Shadbolt’s campaign to “bring down the government”? Turns out the Southland Times was interested too and they’ve found out his move to deliberately break electoral law is being propped up by the Talley brothers, who appear to have a bit of a history of that themselves. Now […]

Desperation from the Herald

Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, January 18th, 2008 - 31 comments

Yesterday’s supposed scandal over an email exhange between Michael Cullen and a National Party activist was an absurd piece of political activism from the Herald. Recently the paper has been running almost daily attack articles on the government, but this was surely scraping the bottom of the barrel. Nat activist John Middleton was painted as […]